Madison Area Lyme Support Group

Connecting the Dots of Yolanda’s Lyme Experience

https://www.lymedisease.org/touchedbylyme-yolanda-hadid-book/  by Dorothy Kupcha

TOUCHED BY LYME: Connecting the dots of Yolanda’s Lyme experience

I first learned about the Lyme disease experiences of Yolanda Hadid (then known as Yolanda Foster) via Twitter.

At that point, Yolanda was a cast member of the “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” TV show, a former high fashion model, wife of millionaire music mogul David Foster, and mother to three children who would themselves go on to high profile careers in modeling.

I admit, her story hooked me right away and I immediately started following her Twitter posts. Her tweets offered a trail of tantalizing bread crumbs. They alluded to hyperbaric oxygen, stem cells, hyperthermia treatments and various cleanses and detoxification protocols. Yet, details were non-existent. She never gave the reader any solid information about her symptoms, nor her wide and varied treatment protocols.

Eventually, she would write blogs for the Bravo website, in connection with the Housewives show. These occasionally mentioned Lyme disease. There were media interviews that spoke of some of her difficulties, and a brilliant speech at the 2013 Time for Lyme Gala in Connecticut.

But mostly, her story dribbled out as a string of cryptic comments on social media. They typically raised more questions than they answered.

Now, Yolanda has connected the dots for us in her book, “Believe Me: My Battle with the Invisible Disability of Lyme Disease.” (St. Martin’s Press, 2017)

It’s a compelling read. Lyme patients will identify with many of its elements: troubling physical symptoms that can’t be explained; a long, traumatic search for an accurate diagnosis, with plenty of missteps by top medical doctors; the difficulties of treatments, both traditional and alternative.

Not everything is something the rest of us might relate to, however. Before she gets sick, Yolanda and David Foster inhabit a glamorous, jet-setting realm, which includes her involvement with the “Real Housewives” TV show.

However, all that changes as her health fails and she must marshal every ounce of inner strength she has to save her life and her sanity. Yolanda falls further and further away from the dazzling world of the entertainment industry, and eventually her marriage collapses as well.

Her willingness to keep searching for answers is a major theme of “Believe Me.” By this time, two of her children are also being treated for Lyme disease. She fights for their lives as well as her own. And in the midst of it, she loses her dear friend Ellie to the ravages of ALS—a severe emotional blow.

Through it all, Yolanda perseveres. She crisscrosses the globe to try out an astonishing array of alternative and ancillary treatments. She has metal-based crowns removed from her teeth and toxin-leaking implants removed from her breasts. She pursues the mystery of intestinal parasites, eventually expelling some gnarly looking rope worms. (Color photos included!)

I don’t view “Believe me” as a road map for Lyme disease treatment. Rather, it’s an inspiring description of her personal journey. Despite many twists and turns, it ultimately leads her to a good place.

I salute Yolanda for the grace, courage, and fortitude with which she endured an incredibly difficult stage of her life. And I thank her for so generously sharing what she has learned along the way.

TOUCHED BY LYME is written by Dorothy Kupcha Leland, LymeDisease.org’s VP for Education and Outreach. She is co-author of When Your Child Has Lyme Disease: A Parent’s Survival Guide. Contact her at dleland@lymedisease.org

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**Comment**

I have not read Hadid’s book yet but am thankful the parasite/worm issue was broached as many Lyme/MSIDS patients improve after taking anthelmintics such as Albenza, Ivermectin, and pin worm medication. Microbiologist Tom Greer shows that Burgdorferi and miyamotoi are associated with amyloid plaques in Alzheimer’s brains, Borrelia found in Lewy Body Dementia, nematodes (worms) found in Alzheimer’s brains, and Borrelia found in five deadly brain tumors (Glioblastoma multiform).  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/08/09/dr-paul-duray-research-fellowship-foundation-some-great-research-being-done-on-lyme-disease/

Pathologist Alan McDonald has found three strains of borrelia living in parasitic nematode worms, worm eggs, or larvae in the brain tissue of 19 autopsies.
MacDonald states that both worms and borrelia can cause devastating brain damage and that “while patients are wrongly declared free of Lyme and other tick-borne infections, in reality, too often they contract serious neurodegenerative diseases which can kill them.”  

Lyme discoverer, Willy Burgdorfer, wrote of finding nematodes in tick guts way back in 1984 and in 2014 University of New Haven researcher, Eva Sapi, found 22% of nymphs and 30% of adult Ixodes ticks carried nematodes.  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/06/03/borrelia-hiding-in-worms-causing-chronic-brain-diseases/  

Parasite treatment:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/10/03/removing-parasites-to-fix-lyme-chronic-illnesses-dr-jay-davidson/

After reading about symbionts found in ticks and worms,  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/05/01/co-infection-of-ticks-the-rule-rather-than-the-exception/, I am concerned the use of Wolbachia (a symbiont) as a biocontrol as it could cause widespread inflammation in Lyme/MSIDS patients:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/07/10/wolbachia-the-next-frankenstein/  Dogs treated for heart worm (D. immitis) have trouble due to the heart worm medication causing Wolbachia to be released into the blood and tissues causing severe Inflammation in pulmonary artery endothelium which may form thrombi and interstitial inflammation. Wolbachia also activates pro inflammatory cytokines.